Texas Man Acquitted in the Deaths of Two Drag Artists -- a Trans Woman and a Gay Man

Source: The Advocate

Texas Man Acquitted in the Deaths of Two Drag Artists — a Trans Woman and a Gay Man

Fayaka Dunbar was acquitted of capital murder in the deaths of popular drag performers London Starr and Bianca Davenport. The Human Rights Campaign has called the acquittal a "grave injustice."

BY TRUDY RING
NOVEMBER 15 2023 9:40 AM EST

LGBTQ+ activists are calling it an injustice that a Texas man was recently acquitted of murder in the deaths of two drag performers, one a gay man and one a transgender woman, in Fort Worth.

The two were shot in their home December 8, 2017. Jason Bradley, 35, a cisgender gay man who performed in drag as Bianca Davenport (also identified as Bianca Starr), died at the scene, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. London Starr, also known as London Watson, a trans woman and drag performer, was left paralyzed from the middle of her chest down, unable to use her arms or legs, after a bullet hit her spine. She spent the rest of her life in hospice care and died July 2, 2022, at age 40. She was at least the 41st trans person lost to violence in the U.S. in 2022.

Fayaka Dunbar, 32, went to trial in Tarrant County this September on a charge of capital murder. He had gone to the pair’s home for a sex act, the Star-Telegram reports. His attorneys said the shooting was an act of self-defense because of a fight over payment for the act, that the two tried to extort him, and that he feared he would be killed. Tarrant County prosecutor Allenna Bangs said Dunbar was lying and that he “sought out sex workers for robbery because he ‘expects nobody cares about them,’” according to the Human Rights Campaign.

On September 20, after a 10-day trial, the jury found Dunbar not guilty of capital murder. Jurors “also rejected murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault and deadly conduct, the other crimes Judge Ryan Hill included in instructions to the jury under a defense request,” the Star-Telegram reports. If Dunbar had been convicted of capital murder, he would have been automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The prosecution had waived the death penalty.

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Read more: https://www.advocate.com/crime/london-starr-bianca-davenport-acquittal